Change Starts With You
by TheKitsuneKasai
Summary: Change starts with you, or rather with a bunny. Nick Wilde begins anew on his path with the undying support of Judy Hopps towards becoming Zootopia Police Department's first Fox Officer. A "Slice of Life" style series, with "Change Starts With You" being the first in the series. Note: Rated "M" as a precaution and a baseline.
" _One week!?_ " a voice yelled out, breaking the perfect silence inside the Zootopia General Hospital. The voice belonged to one little bunny, a wheelchair bound Judy Hopps. Behind her, piloting the wheelchair, walked a red fox; Nicholas Wilde.

"Now, now, Carrots. They did give plenty of good reasons for this whole one week situation." Nick said.

"So what, are you saying that you agree with them?" Judy said.

"Yes, yes I do." Nick answered her flatly. Judy leaned her head back against her wheelchair as Nick exited the hospital and quickly put on his aviators to protect his eyes from the bright rays of the late afternoon sun. Judy glanced up towards Nick with an annoyed look on her face.

"One whole week to take off for only a simple cut on my leg? That is too much, Nick!" she continued to protest in vain. He looked down at the little bunny in amusement. She had gotten seriously hurt just the other day and all she can think about is getting straight back to her old job? Completely crazy.

"Just a simple cut? If I recall correctly you couldn't even stand on that leg with that 'Simple cut'" Nick mocked her slightly as they rounded the corner and began walking down Zootopia's Downtown section as Judy subconsciously reached down and rubbed her bandaged up leg at Nick's statement.

"And you seem to not recall where I managed to run away from you during our act, Nick." Judy shot back smugly, as if that had settled the debate. Nick didn't seem to think so.

"Ha! You call that running away? I, on the other hand call that barely even limping away, my dear." He looked down at Judy who had turned her head away from him and stared ahead. "It's also because of that infection it got while we were inside the Natural History Museum." Nick said.

"You should be grateful that is all you got." Nick told her a small hint of concern in his voice that didn't go unnoticed.

"Aw. Are you worried about my health, Nick? That is just so _sweet_ of you." she teased him the moment he stopped talking. Nick let out one quick laugh as they continued down the sidewalk passing by many different types of stores and restaurants that Judy had never seen before growing up in Bunnyburrows. She had been in Zootopia for a few months prior but had never really gotten the chance to fully explore what the city had to offer. Her glances of curiosity and amazement also didn't go by unnoticed.

"What you never got to see around Zootopia before?" Nick asked her as they passed by a clothing store that displayed many different fashion styles and fabrics she never saw anyone wore in her old home along with many different species of mammals that simply didn't live in Bunnyburrow that shopped within the store. Judy would have said before that she never saw any other mammal as "different" before. She had felt she was above those thoughts that many other animals held but, after the disaster that was her first live press conference she had become much more conscious of her own thoughts and of all the different mammals that lived inside Zootopia. More importantly she had become aware of a certain red fox's existence so much more than she had before.

"No, I hadn't been able to do much in Zootopia since I got here remember." she said after a short pause spent staring. "I had to solve the missing mammals case on my second day here then after that I…" She stopped, the memory of that day played back in her head and Nick's broken and angry face swam before her bring with it the guilt she held inside as she could feel Nick looking down at the back of her head but couldn't bring herself to turn and face him.

"I spent the next three months trying to fix what I had broken...Which if you remember didn't go quite as well as it should have." Judy said with a faux laugh in an attempt to inject some humor into the conversation.

"That's one way of putting it alright." Judy's poor attempt at adding humor seemed to fail miserably. She slumped down into her wheelchair, _How does Nick always manage to do it?_ She thought to herself.

"But, everything worked out OK in the end, didn't it?" Nick asked. Judy finally turned towards Nick and saw his face wasn't angry or upset but carried a slight smile upon it which she returned nervously.

"So...You're not mad with me anymore?"

"Eeh, Not anymore. Actually, I don't think I was ever really mad at you, Carrots." Judy lost her nervous smile and just looked on at Nick. "A while after I left the station I came running back in to see if you were still there, but you weren't. I was an idiot to walk out on you like that like I had done befo-" He stopped momentarily before regaining his composure.

"I was an idiot and I regretted leaving you there every, single, day afterwards." Nick's ears had droop down significantly and his eyes averted Judy's eyes entirely. Judy continued to stare at Nick, ignoring the stiffness that was coming to her neck from this angle.

"Nick, if you regretted leaving...Why did you never come looking for me at the ZPD? You had to have known I would always be there?" That was one hundred percent correct. He knew that Judy would always be there if he had gone looking for her at the ZPD, but he didn't. Just like before he didn't go back to what he had walked out on.

"I-I know that…"

"Then...why? Why didn't you come back to me!" Her voice suddenly increased to that of yell that not even she knew why she was yelling. Was she upset? Crying? She felt tears cradle the corners of her eyes. "Why didn't you come back, Nick! If you had came back everything would had been so much more tolerable, everything would had been better... _I wouldn't have quit being an officer if you had came back_!"

Guilt pinged through his chest as he listened to Judy speak. It has been years since he had felt this feeling. Just like a few months ago on the gondola it was this small little bunny that made him feel emotions he thought he had long gotten rid of

"I'm-I'm sorry…" Nick hung his head down not wanting to look into Judy's dejected eyes. That was a pointless thing to say and he knew it, but that was all it found himself able to say without making this situation worst.

"Well...everything worked out OK in the end, didn't it?" Judy said softly. Nick looked back at Judy who wore a soft smile on her face.

"Hey, did you just use my own line against me?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. You can't prove anything."

"Sly bunny."

"Dumb fox." Judy said smugly as she positioned herself to face forward in her wheelchair. They had managed to walk two city blocks by the end of their emotional conversation. There was still one last thing Nick needed to know before they kept on going.

"Say, Carrots, where exactly do you live again?" Nick asked.

"Oh, I live in Grand Pangolin Arms Apart-" Judy hard stopped right in the middle of talking, her facing taking on a horrified expression. Nick gave the back of her head a curious glance

"Um, you-"

"I don't... _I don't have a home anymore!_ "


End file.
